The first sentence in this passage is a faithful rendition of the essential ideas in the most important writings of Karl Marx, who had opened his main work, the first volume of Capital (1867), with an exposition of commodity exchange. The theory says that the basic form of the historically given commodity economy on which modern history rests contains in itself the internal and external tensions of the modern era it generates those tensions over and over again in an increasingly heightened form and after a period of progress, development of human powers, and emancipation of the individual, after an enormous extension of human control over nature, it finally hinders further development and drives humanity into a new barbarism. Thus the critical theory of society begins with the idea of the simple exchange of commoditiesвЂ¦. Nowhere in this essay does Horkheimer explicitly identify critical theory with Marxism, but towards its conclusion the theoryвЂ™s Marxist roots become apparent:

вЂњa theory dominated at every turn by a concern for reasonable conditions of lifeвЂќ ДЄ theory which condemns existing social institutions and practices as вЂњinhumanвЂќ ДЄ theory which contemplates the need for вЂњan alteration of society as a whole.вЂќ 6 In an essay published in the InstituteвЂ™s house journal in 1937, entitled вЂњTraditional and Critical Theory,вЂќ Max Horkheimer defined the вЂњcritical theory of societyвЂќ as: The label they gave to their version was вЂњthe critical theory of society.вЂќ The Frankfurt School defined its own unique version of Western Marxism during the 1930s, when its members were in exile from Nazi Germany and already scattered across the rest of Europe and as far abroad as the United States. The Frankfurt School was one of the main components of the early 20 th Century trend called вЂњWestern Marxism.вЂќ This phrase refers to Western European thinkers who were heavily influenced by Marx and whose interpretation of MarxвЂ™s work differed notably from the version propagated in the Soviet Union. In recent years Walter Benjamin has been recognized as another important member.

5 In addition to Marcuse, the most prominent members of the School were Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Marcuse is identified with a group of German thinkers known collectively as вЂњThe Frankfurt SchoolвЂќ because they were all affiliated at one time or another with the Institute for Social Research which had been founded at the University of Frankfurt in 1924. 1 2 3 4 Part II: Marcuse and the вЂњCritical Theory of SocietyвЂќ

Marcuse the end of utopia pdf